Stanley Tookie Williams, a condemned gangster whose execution drew more national and international attention than any here in decades, was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12:35 this morning at San Quentin State Prison. …Although I agree with the protesters' position, somehow it seems melodramatic.
Outside the gates of San Quentin, an estimated 1,000 people held a largely peaceful vigil, reading aloud from Mr. Williams's books, with some, shortly after midnight Monday, shouting, "Long live Tookie Williams!" At 12:38 a.m., three minutes after Mr. Williams was pronounced dead - after a process that took 36 minutes and 15 seconds from the time Mr. Williams was brought into the chamber - the crowd sang "We Shall Overcome."
I was once fervently opposed to the death penalty. I still think it's wrong. But as I become more accepting of (resigned to) the fact that everyone dies, the bite seems less stinging. Execution changes when someone dies, not whether.
Of course it's a lot easier for me to say this from my comfortable seat at my computer than for Williams on the gurney.
1 comment:
I simply don’t see any good coming out of execution.
It does not reduce crime, it does not bring justice, it ignores redemption, it denigrates the value of life, it is subject to error and there is no way to undo it
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